In time for Valentine’s Day, Sprint has launched two mobile data services for its PCS Vision customer base. SMS.ac allows users to flirt for 25 cents per text message and Match.com Mobile gives users the chance to browse potential mates for free, but actually contacting someone costs $4.99 a month.
Soon, Sprint will offer mobile access to LavaLife Mobile. Match Mobile is enticing new users by giving away a $2,500 cruise and five crystal-covered phones.
It’s still very early in the mobile dating game, it will be interesting to see the adoption rate of these types of services. The pricing plans make my head spin. Here are all the prices peppered throughoutthe press release:
$0.25 per text message sent and received
$0.25 per message received
$.25 per text message received
$4.99 a month for unlimited usage
$0.79 per minute plus airtime
$0.50 per message
$4.99 per month
$.002 per kilobyte (quick, what’s a kilobyte)
I enjoy playing around with my mobile phone, checking out mobile instant messengers, web browsing on the tiny screen, all the while fretting over how much it’s all costing me. I’m a firm believer that location-based services and mobile communities based on sex, boredom and information retrieval will lead the revenue generation categories, especially in urban areas. At this point, the adoption rate for these types of services remains small and the novelty factor is high.
